Modern Spiritualism by J. H. Waggoner

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 4, 1858

Modern Spiritualism

By J. H. Waggoner

THE NATURE AND TENDENCY OF MODERN SPIRITUALISM.

BY J. H. WAGGONER.

(Concluded.)

In tracing this subject to its conclusion we must necessarily notice the part these churches are destined to act in the coming struggle. And in order to this we must show the fulfillment of prophecy in their present fallen condition. We believe they are all members of the family of great Babylon of Rev. xiv, and xviii, and daughters of the "Mother of harlots" of Rev. xvii. The name Babylon signifies confusion; and in this sense we may safely appeal to all, if the Protestant churches, with their hundreds of different creeds, are not more fitly represented by this name than the Catholic church alone. This confusion was aptly noticed in an "anniversary sermon" in New York by Dr. Biddle of Pittsburgh, who thus speaks of the danger of the country from Catholic influence and the want of union and energy on the part of Protestants:

"A village in the West, for one half its population, which is Catholic, has one church and pastor, one Lord, one faith, one baptism; the other half, which is Protestant, has five or six pastors and churches, and each has his separate 'Psalm, doctrine, tongue, revelation, and interpretation!' Yet, 'God is not the author of confusion,' but of peace, in all the churches of the saints."

It must be humiliating to a Protestant doctor to place the Catholic church on the true scriptural ground, as he has above, and the Protestants on the ground that God's word condemns. And so manifestly unscriptural is their position that it has long been regarded as a fulfillment of prophecy by observing minds.

Says Alexander Campbell:

"The worshiping establishments now in operation throughout Christendom, increased and cemented by their respective voluminous confessions of faith and their ecclesiastical constitutions, are not churches of Jesus Christ, but the legitimate daughters of that Mother of Harlots—the church of Rome."

Said Lorenzo Dow:

"We read not only of Babylon, but of the whore of Babylon, styled the mother of harlots, which is supposed to mean the Romish church. If she be a mother, who are her daughters? It must be the corrupt national established churches that came out of her; if so, what of those governments that support them? But oh! the cry of national sins! are not Connecticut and Massachusetts in possession of a quaternion, or some of the tincture? Behold the conduct of the clergy!"

The justice of these remarks none will deny; and how far do they extend? The Protestant churches are the daughters of Babylon by birth; as we trace their origin to that body. And they are chartered and sustained by the government as really as ever their mother was. Why was the Romish church represented by a lewd woman or harlot? Of course by reason of the position she occupied. The name denotes a woman of lewd practices; that is, having unlawful connection with men. And as a church is represented by a woman espoused to Christ, separated from the world to his praise and glory, the figure in the prophecy must denote that the church or churches referred to are alienated from Christ and have become connected with earthly governments. This is the position of the worldly, chartered churches of the present day; and herein is fulfilled the prophecy of Rev. xiv, 8: "Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication." This illicit intercourse is the declared ground of her fall. This worldly spirit, which seeks an alliance with the nations, which leans upon the arm of the civil law instead of leaning on Him who should be "her beloved," and which loves the praise of the world, led them to reject the Gospel of the Kingdom, or the good news of the coming of the Son of man. In Rev. xiv, this fact is barely announced. Some connect with this the cry of Rev. xviii, 1-4, but that is evidently in the future, and could not be given when the other was, at the end of the 2300 days of Dan. viii, 14, in the fall of 1844. There the Advent believers met with a disappointment as bitter as that suffered by the early disciples of Jesus when their Lord was crucified. That disappointment brought reproach, and the reproach turned the glorious and soul-cheering doctrine of the advent of the Saviour out of the churches. But in rejecting this doctrine they rejected the "present truth," and the consequence was what we might have expected from such a cause: the Lord rejected them from being his people. The antediluvians had a test truth for their age; they rejected it and were destroyed. The Jews incurred the divine displeasure in the same manner. They professed to believe what the prophets had written, but they rejected their fulfillment. We will now briefly examine this question: Does the evidence exist that the churches have fallen?

The facts already noticed of their connection with the government fully prove it. Their interest is not in the cause of God. They are worldly, aspiring, ambitious, proud. By their charters they become political bodies. They profess to be reformers, but they carry on their proposed reforms even as the most wicked of the earth. Think of the quantity of rifles sent to Kansas by ministers and church-members to redeem that territory from the curse of slavery. So manifest is their departure from the principles of the gospel that admissions of the fact meet us in every direction. Prof. Finney of Oberlin said in 1844:

"We have had the fact before our minds, that in general, the Protestant churches of our country, as such, were either apathetic or hostile to nearly all the moral reforms of the age. There are partial exceptions, yet not enough to render the fact otherwise than general. We have also another corroborated fact: the almost universal absence of revival influence in the churches. The spiritual apathy is almost all-pervading, and is fearfully deep; so the religious press of the whole land testifies. It comes to our ears and to our eyes, also through the religious prints, that very extensively church members are becoming devotees of fashion—join hands with the ungodly in parties of pleasure, in dancing, in festivities, &c. . . . But we need not expand this painful subject. Suffice it that the evidence thickens and rolls heavily upon us, to show that the churches generally are becoming sadly degenerate. They have gone very far from the Lord and he has withdrawn himself from them."

Orange Scott, the celebrated Wesleyan Methodist, said in 1846:

"The plainest principles of the gospel have slumbered for ages. "The church is as deeply infected with a desire for worldly gain, as the world. At least there is no perceptible difference. Professors of religion are emphatically worldly-minded. "The church are making a god of this world. "Most of the denominations of the present day might be called churches of the world, with more propriety than churches of Christ. "The churches are so far gone from primitive Christianity that they need a fresh regeneration—a new kind of religion. "They have gone over to the world and have opposed what the world opposed. "The world will never be converted by such a religion. "Christians pray for the union of the churches, but fight against it."

The Religious Telescope, of Circleville, Ohio, in 1844, contained the following:

"Great Spiritual Death.—It is a lamentable fact, from which we cannot shut our eyes, that the churches of this country are now suffering severely on account of the great death, almost universally complained of. We have never witnessed such a general declension of religion as at the present. Truly the church should awake and search into the cause of this affliction; for an affliction every one that loves Zion must view it. When we call to mind how 'few and far between,' cases of true conversion are, and the almost unparalleled impertinence and hardness of sinners, we almost involuntarily exclaim, 'Has God forgotten to be gracious? Or, is the door of mercy closed?' "Look again, and behold the spirit of the world, how it prevails in the church. Where is the pious man who has not been made to sigh on account of these abominations in the midst of us? Who is that man in the political crowd whose voice is heard above the rest, and who is foremost in carrying torch-lights, bellowing at the top of his voice? O,

he is a Christian? perhaps a class-leader, or exhorter. Who is that lady dressed in the most ridiculous fashion, as if nature had deformed her? O, she is a follower and imitator of the humble Jesus! O, shame! where is thy blush? This is no uncommon picture, I assure you. Would to God it was. My heart is pained within me while I write."

The Christian Palladium, of the same year said:

"In every direction we hear the dolorous sound, wafting upon every breeze of heaven, chilling as the blasts from the icebergs of the North—settling like an incubus on the breasts of the timid, and drinking up the energies of the weak; that lukewarmness, division, anarchy, and desolation are distressing the borders of Zion."

The Congregational Journal for the same year said:

"At a recent meeting of the Presbytery of Philadelphia, Rev. Mr. Barnes, pastor of the 1st Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, whose notes are so extensively used in our families and Sabbath-schools, stated that he had been in the ministry for twenty years, and never till the last communion had he administered the ordinance without receiving more or less to the church. But now there are no awakenings, no conversions, not much apparent growth in grace in professors, and none come to his study to converse about the salvation of their souls. With the increase of business, and the brightening prospects of commerce and manufactures, there is an increase of worldly-mindedness. Thus it is with all denominations."

"The report of the 'Michigan Yearly Conference,' published in the True Wesleyan of Nov. 15, 1851, says:

"The committee on Reforms ask leave to report: That the popular sentiment, 'the voice of the people is the voice of God,' has, in general, been false since man fell from holiness. Popular opinion is commonly wrong—it is the broad way that leadeth to destruction. The church is not only called out of the world proper, but of nominal christianity, and is to be a peculiar people—'the salt of the earth, and the light of the world.' Without her influence the world is lost: reason, philosophy, science, and all the imposing influence of eloquence and wealth in a carnal church cannot save it. The world, commercial, political, ecclesiastical, are alike, and are together going in the broad way that leads to death. Politics, commerce, and nominal religion all connive at sin, reciprocally aid each other, and unite to crush the poor. Falsehood is unblushingly uttered in the forum and in the pulpit; and sins that would shock the moral sensibilities of the heathen, go unrebuked in all the great denominations of our land. These churches are like the Jewish church when the Saviour exclaimed, Wo unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites."

This is strong language, but the facts fully sustain it. The Louisville Recorder says:

"Though we have (at least among Protestants) no human priest or sacrificial altar, yet among us the social element and power of the church has become cramped, ice-bound, or entirely destroyed. We have become an assembly, not of living actors, but of silent, passive hearers. The church has become mere listeners to preachers—a roll of names baptized, permitted to take the Lord's supper, and expected to enjoy good preaching. Like the door on the hinges they come and they go. They are prayed for, and sung to, and preached to; and often sung and preached to sleep, if not to death. Thus, year after year, is this continuous round, this dead flat, over which not a breath of emotion pauses to disturb the dull and decent monotony. The minister seeks not, and the church strives not, to 'grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body fitly joined and compacted by that which every joint supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.' But relying on the preacher—when he is gone all is gone—the glory has departed."

A correspondent of a New York paper, writing from St. Louis, attending the Anniversary Meeting of the Pres. Gen. Assembly there, says:

"It is getting to be an immense job for a sojourner in our large towns to find his way to a house of God; and as to poor residents, (heaven take care of and save them,) if the doctrine be true that there is no salvation out of the church, the poor people are inevitably lost, for they can neither buy nor hire a pew in these hundred thousand dollar churches. Gentility is fast getting to be the only passport to heaven; as the depths of a man's purse, so are his chances for future glory. "When will our city ministers believe the word they preach, that the poor are God's chosen people? When will they have the moral courage to take the hand of a poor man in the street, and say as Moses said to Hobab, 'Come with us and we will do thee good.'"

The New York Evangelist bears the following testimony:

"To the shame of the church it must be confessed that the foremost men in all our philanthropic movements, in the interpretation of the spirit of the age; in the practical application of genuine christianity; in the reformation of abuses in high and low places; in the vindication of the right of man; and in practically redeeming his wrongs; in the moral and intellectual regeneration of the race, are the so-called infidels in our land. The church has pusillanimously left, not only the working oar, but the very reins of salutary reform, in the hands of men she denounces inimical to christianity, and who are practically doing with all their might, for humanity's sake, that which the church ought to be doing for Christ's sake; and if they succeed, as succeed they will, (?) in abolishing slavery, banishing rum, restraining licentiousness, reforming abuses, and elevating the masses, then the recoil upon christianity will be disastrous in the extreme. Woe, woe, woe to christianity, when infidels, by force of nature or the tendency of the age, get ahead of the church in morals, and in the practical work of christianity. In some instances they are already far in advance; in the vindication of truth, righteousness and liberty, they are the pioneers, beckoning to a sluggish church to follow."

Such a testimony from such a source is worthy of careful consideration. The church sluggishly neglecting even the calls of humanity, and leaving the practical application of genuine christianity in infidels! Surely the fine gold has become dim; the salt has lost its savior; their light has become darkness; the 'city' is no longer 'set on a hill' that it 'cannot be hid;' but it is become 'the city of confusion,' (Babylon,) and the voice from heaven solemnly declares that Babylon is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of her fornication.' And even in this they 'glory in their shame.' They boast of their connection with politics as an evidence that they are going to evangelize the nation. But they are not elevating the politics of the nation to a level with christianity; they are lowering down christianity to the level of the most degenerate national policy. They swear to maintain, and vote for men to execute, a constitution and laws which authorize a declaration of war, and sustain the institution of slavery. At the same time they raise arms and equip soldiers to put down an institution which the constitution upholds, while the scripture says, the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but spiritual. The effect of this unhallowed connection with politics and religion is thus graphically sketched by the Presbyterian Herald:

"There seems never to have been a time in the history of our country, when questions of religious and political science were so mingled together as at the present. When we open a paper, it is often hard to tell at the first glance whether it is a political or a religious journal. In all parts of our land, but especially in the northern portions, the platform and the stump give excited utterance to theological dogmas; while the pulpit thunders forth political harangues."

It then gives a description of true religion and the place it should occupy, and continues:

"Such is the position of religion, and such her relation to politics and all other earthly things. But of late we have seen her descend into the heated arena, lose herself in the surging and tossing crowd, and when next she emerges, or rather, when her position is again occupied, 'tis no longer herself, but a drunken drab, wild with excitement, raves and belches forth words of strife and scorn, bloodshed and bitterness, adding fuel to the flames of hatred and envy, and mocking heaven with daring blasphemy—essaying even to wield the thunders of Jehovah. When such a scene meets our troubled vision, we cry, Surely religion has been trodden in the streets, truth and righteousness lie bleeding in the dust. Alas! alas! has she perished forever? Shall we never more behold her beauty, and feel her sweet attractions?"

A writer in the American Baptist, speaking of the tendency of that denomination says:

"I read some days since the report of proceedings in the recent Board meeting of the Missionary Union, and a splendid thing it is. Rev. so and so D. D., Rev. so and so D. D., nearly thirty times in the preliminary proceedings of the first day; and so on, to such a dizzy height of D. D's., that I gave up the count—profoundly penetrated with the thought that we are a great denomination. * Such things look well enough on the brow of the Mother of Harlots—but in the church of Christ—the Baptist church—O shade of Roger Williams—'where are we drifting?'"

One thing more we will notice as indicating the position of the various denominations of the day, which is their settled and determined opposition to the Sabbath of the Lord. Though most of them declare directly in their articles and disciplines that the ten commandments are binding, and constitute the foundation of moral obligation, they are unwilling even to have the fourth commandment preached in their houses of worship. In rejecting the Sabbath they not only act inconsistently with their own profession, but really disregard the authority of God, and make their religion a 'mere expedient,' according to their own testimony given in a Sabbath convention at Chicago, in 1854, as follows:

"As each of God's commandments rests upon all his authority, those who dispense with the Sabbath set aside all the authority of God on which the whole decalogue rests. Henceforth such men do not obey God at all. The rules of their churches may bind them to religious observances; education, habit, and a sense of their interests, may keep them to conventional decencies; but like children who always act from policy, and never from obedience to parents, their hearts are stripped of all those influences which bind and bow their wills to their Father which is in heaven. Their religion thenceforth becomes a mere expedient to get to heaven by—mercenary in its motives, various in its morality, and the very fear of God is, with them, taught by the precepts of man."

This language expresses the true condition and marks the course of the churches of the present day, though it was not intended for that purpose. The quotations given fully justify its application to them. And many others might be given; but we will let these suffice, as our object is not to enlarge on this point, but to notice it as a connecting link in the fulfillment of prophecy. In Rev. xviii, 2 is another announcement of the fall of Babylon, with the additional facts that she 'is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.' And the same cause is assigned for her fall; her connection with the nations of the earth. In connection with this, a voice from heaven says: 'Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.' The particulars of this cry show that our application of Babylon is correct, as it is where numbers of God's people are; and the fall referred to is a moral fall, as God's people are called out after her fall, to escape her plagues that are to follow. And as the 'spirits of devils' are now finding their way to the heart of the civil power, preparing the way for the utterance of oppressive, persecuting enactments, so are they also fast taking their places in these fallen, corrupt churches, which are even now becoming the habitation of devils, and the hold of foul spirits. A large proportion of the spiritual lecturers are ministers, and many others are believers; some are preaching it to their congregations, and

their meeting houses, dedicated to the worship of God, are frequently opened to their lectures, while they are denied to those who lecture on the Bible evidences of the signs of the times and the commandments of God. A writer in the Christian Spiritualist, a resident of Caraccas, Venezuela, said that the Catholic Archbishop and his priests had become converts; also that the President of Venezuela is a firm believer in and protector of Spiritualism. The Spiritual Age says that many prominent clergymen of that city, (N. Y.) are much interested, and hold private circles together to investigate it, where many convincing tests have been given.

The great reason why church members and ministers are so easily deceived by these spirits, is their ignorance of the Bible. The members have left the reading of the Scriptures to their ministers, while they have turned their whole attention to making money. The ministers have been trained in the theological schools to read Homer and Virgil, instead of the writings of the prophets and apostles. All unite in their efforts to please the world, and hold forth a religion without a cross, which fosters pride and gratifies their ambitious views. What little they read the Bible is, not with a desire to learn their duty there, but to find arguments to sustain their preadopted creeds, and to build up their several denominations. A visit from a 'test medium' to a village, often fills the churches with the deepest surprise, and both ministers and members will sit for hours to listen to their seducing words, and to behold the manifestations, utterly disregarding the precept of the Lord, to seek not unto them that have familiar spirits, and without once thinking that it is a subject of prophecy, and they are unwilling to believe the Bible statements concerning the dead which prove it to be a deception of the enemy. Where they have been found reasoning together concerning these things, an individual has quoted the words of the Scriptures, that 'the dead know not anything,' and that their love, and hatred, and envy, and all their thoughts are perished, and that they must wait for the resurrection from the dead for a revival from this unconsciousness, and they would avoid him as they would a contagion. Errors that are popular, though their origin can be traced to the superstitions of the heathens, are preferred to the plainest truths of the Bible, if a belief in them brings a reproach. And the churches, accustomed to lean on the government for support, find it easier to secure the favor of politicians by their votes, and thus get laws passed to uphold their systems, than to search the Scriptures for proofs, and thus sustain them by an appeal to the consciences of men. And on many points they have no Scripture proofs at all, and the law of the land is their only refuge. Thus in regard to the Sabbath; were it not for the enactments of the various State legislatures, the practice of Sunday-keeping could not be sustained for a single hour. In such cases they have rested on the laws of man till they seem to look on them as good authority. How easily has Satan taken them in this snare of popularity, and how easy now for him to work on their pride of opinion, and thus induce them to fully unite with this corrupt government to enact and enforce iniquitous laws and unscriptural dogmas. Well may the student of prophecy expect that 'an image to the first beast' will be speedily made. The churches themselves have denounced 'church and state' as an abomination to be avoided by all means; yet we find them already inseparably connected with the government. And when 'the spirits of devils' come 'out of the mouth' of the Two-horned beast, and receive the sanction of law, no one, who has noted the present fallen condition, or marked the tendency of the churches, can doubt that they will be ready to endorse that on which their temporal power and prosperity entirely depend. Then will Rev. xviii, 2 be fulfilled. Then will fallen Babylon have 'become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit.' Then will the cup of her iniquity be full, and the honest hearted ones, who have sighed and cried for her abominations, will hear a voice from heaven saying, 'Come out of her my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.'

Then will the work of Spiritualism be accomplished. All who do not 'fear God and keep his commandments' will be deceived. And how awful the consequences! They 'shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation.' Then will the voice of God again be heard, not to convince sinners of their obligation to keep his law, but to vindicate the honor of his government, and destroy them that have loved not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

God has shown his love to them, but they have hated him. He has called, but they have refused. He has entreated, but they have mocked. He has threatened, but they despised his word. Jesus died for them, but they trampled on his blood. The Spirit of love and truth strove with them, but they grieved it away. The messengers of truth warned them, but they despitefully used and persecuted them. God's mercy has been abused, and his majesty insulted. Nothing then remains but for God to vindicate his justice, and give them the due reward of their works.

But a little space is now left for repentance, and who will receive the testimony? In view of these things is it not time for God's people to strive to overcome? to wrestle for the victory? to struggle for eternal life? to be zealous and repent of their lukewarmness, and walk in the Spirit from day to day? If we would abide that day, we must be holy and pure in heart; we must hunger and thirst after righteousness; our whole souls must pant for the living God, that we may love him with all the heart. O the horrors of that day, when God shall arise to shake terribly the earth! And it hasteth greatly. Then in vain may the charmers use their enchantments, for the Lord 'frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and maketh diviners mad.'

'Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean, and I will receive you.' May the Lord in mercy spare his people, and bring them through the perils of these times, and finally bring them to Mount Zion with shouts of victory, and songs of joy, Amen!